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Show Biz Bugs
Show Biz Bugs is a 1957 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng. Plot Arriving at the theater where he and Bugs are appearing (a quarter for a single block), Daffy is furious to discover that the rabbit's name on the marquee is above his in much larger letters. Rebuffed by the unseen manager's claim that he gives his performers billing "according to drawing power", Daffy is determined to prove that he's the star of the show. That evening, Bugs and Daffy are performing an on-stage number to Tea for Two. Daffy, tired of Bugs hogging up all the cheering and applause (especially after the reception Bugs gets for his Shave and a Haircut bit) even though Daffy himself is genuinely talented, decides to try numerous numbers on his own in order to impress the audience. He begins on the spot with a backbreaking time step to Jeepers Creepers. Then Daffy did a trained pigeon act. He sets up various pigeon-sized acrobatic equipment and releases the pigeons from a box, but the pigeons fly out the window. Daffy tap danced his way off the stage and peeked out, only to get hit with a tomato. Bugs then does a sawing in half trick and Daffy is the volunteer. Daffy says that the thing is a fake. As Bugs saws him in half, the audience applauds. Daffy yells "Don't applaud him! Look! I'm not cut in half! Stop applauding! It's a fake!" When he lifts his torso, it is revealed that Bugs did saw him in half! Daffy says to the audience "Good thing I got Blue Cross." Next, Daffy tried sabotage Bugs' own act, playing the song Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms ''on the xylophone by sticking TNT in it, which he fails to do. Finally after Bugs did a juggling act and in order to impress the audience, Daffy performs a deadly stunt (which he refers as "An act that no other performer has dared to execute!"), a stunt so deadly that he has to warn those in the audience who have "weak constitutions" to leave the theater for his performance, by drinking gasoline, nitroglycerin, gunpowder, and uranium 238. ("shake well,") Swallows a lit match ("Girls, you better hold onto your boyfriends!"), causing him to explode. The audience loves the performance, but Daffy, is now a transparent ghost and is ascending to heaven. ("I know, I know, but I could only do it once.") Censorship The scene at the end of this cartoon where Daffy performs his final act by drinking dangerous chemicals is almost always edited on American (and, in one case, British) TV, but in different ways:http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-s.aspx * The CBS version in the 1970s and 1980s, the WB version, and even the version shown on the United Kingdom's BBC channel deleted the ending entirely by ending the cartoon after Daffy gets frustrated at Bugs messing up "Those Endearing Young Charms" on the booby-trapped xylophone, performs the tune himself, and gets blown up. *Cartoon Network and Boomerang (American feed) used to air the original ending uncut, but then edited it by removing Daffy drinking the gasoline by cutting to a shot of Bugs looking on in shock after his juggling act. In 2003, Cartoon Network and Boomerang aired a new edited version of the short that ended the cartoon after the xylophone gag (similar to how it was cut on CBS, The WB, and BBC). As of 2011, Cartoon Network and Boomerang (American feed) have aired this short uncut and uncensored. *The version shown on the syndicated version of ''The Merrie Melodies Show, several local station airings, and ABC's Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show didn't delete the entire ending, but did cut Daffy drinking the gasoline so that way it looks as if he drinks the nitroglycerin first. This is also how the short is shown on Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie ''(not counting the Disney Channel edit seen below). *Nickelodeon's version aired this cartoon with the gasoline drinking left in (despite Nickelodeon's other cuts to characters ingesting dangerous chemicals, as seen on "Porky's Midnight Matinee" and "Bye Bye Bluebeard"), but cut the part where Daffy strikes the match, asides to the audience "Girls, you better hold on to your boyfriends," and swallows the match. This edit makes it seem as if Daffy exploded from "shaking well" after swallowing the uranium 238. *When Friz Freleng's ''Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (which includes clips from this cartoon as the climax) aired on The Disney Channel, Daffy's death defying act was edited so severely that the only scenes left were Daffy holding the bottle of nitroglycerin and the explosion from after the match swallowing (making it seem as if Daffy's holding the nitroglycerin caused the explosion).http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/s/ Goofs When Bugs is applauding Daffy's "final act", his tail disappears for a frame. Previous Film References The xylophone gag was previously used in the Private Snafu short "Booby Traps" and the Bugs/Yosemite Sam short "Ballot Box Bunny" (and later in "Rushing Roulette"), only in both cases the instrument used was a piano. The song used in each case, as in "Show Biz Bugs", is Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms. Two of the acts have been used in an earlier Porky Pig cartoon called "Curtain Razor". One saw a man named Crawford Coo do a pigeon act, but the birds flew out of the window. It was later used in "Unnatural History". And the last one saw a fox do the same act Daffy does attempting to show Porky he is a star, and, much like "Show Biz Bugs", the final act in "Curtain Razor" has been censored on Cartoon Network to remove him ingesting gasoline (the syndicated version on Merrie Melodies also cuts the gasoline-drinking and edits it even further by cutting out the fox swallowing a match). Availability *VHS - A Salute to Friz Freleng *VHS - Superior Duck *Laserdisc - Looney Tunes: Curtain Calls: Classic Music and Show Business Cartoons *DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc 4 *DVD - Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 2, Disc 2 *DVD - The Essential Bugs Bunny, ''Disc 1 *Blu-Ray, DVD - ''Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1 *Streaming - Boomerang App Notes * "Show Biz Bugs" is notable for portraying the modern interpretation of Daffy in a more sympathetic light: In this film, Daffy is a jealous and arrogant competitor to Bugs, but his shabby treatment by the theater management and audience is depicted as being unfairly out of proportion to the genuine talent he possesses. * The basic setting and conflicts of this film were reprised for the linking footage for The Bugs Bunny Show television series. * Final Cartoon of "Friz Freleng's Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie" Video Click here to watch "Show Biz Bugs". Gallery Showbizbuzlobbycard.PNG|Lobby Card 1 51AGUGecn3L.jpg|Lobby Card 2 Bugsanddaffy.png|Time to start the show. _main (1).jpg|Colorized Lobby Card ShowBizBugsPublicityArtwork.jpg|Publicity artwork References External links * * Show Biz Bugs at SuperCartoons.net * Show Biz Bugs at B99.TV * Show Biz Bugs on the SFX Resource Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons Category:Daffy Duck Cartoons Category:Hollywood in Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:1957 Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie Cartoons Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Boris Gorelick Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer